Addressing propagation of inaccurate information in a social networking environment

ABSTRACT

An approach is described for addressing propagation of inaccurate information in a social networking environment. An associated method may include identifying inaccurate information within the social networking environment, facilitating creation of countering content to address the inaccurate information, and disseminating the countering content. The countering content may be determined by identifying behavior of one or more users among a plurality of users within the social networking environment. Identifying the inaccurate information within the social networking environment may include receiving information provided within the social networking environment. Upon determining that the received information is factual and thus objectively verifiable, it may be determined whether the received information matches analogous information verified as accurate. Upon determining that the received information does not match the analogous information verified as accurate, the received information may be marked as inaccurate.

BACKGROUND

The various embodiments described herein generally relate to onlinecommunication. More specifically, the various embodiments describetechniques for addressing propagation of inaccurate information in asocial networking environment.

Social networking environments facilitate rapid propagation ofinformation, often among many users. Accordingly, inaccurate informationmay be shared and re-shared multiple times, especially if suchinaccurate information originates from a highly-rated user. Inaccurateinformation may be presented in a meme, which is generally defined as anidea, behavior, or style that spreads from one entity to another.Addressing such inaccurate information may be counterproductive if oneor more of its propagators are attacked or censored. Attacking orcensoring propagation of inaccurate information may lead to the“Streisand effect”, the results of which may entail wider publication ofsuch inaccurate information and active defense of such inaccurateinformation by users in a social networking environment.

SUMMARY

The various embodiments described herein provide techniques foraddressing propagation of inaccurate information in a social networkingenvironment (or other online environment). An associated method mayinclude identifying inaccurate information of a factual nature withinthe social networking environment. The identification of the inaccurateinformation may occur via a communications network. The method furthermay include facilitating creation of countering content to address theinaccurate information. The countering content may be determined byidentifying behavior of one or more users among a plurality of userswithin the social networking environment. The method further may includedisseminating the countering content.

In an embodiment, the inaccurate information may be propagated by ahighly-rated user among the plurality of users within the socialnetworking environment. In a further embodiment, the method step ofidentifying the inaccurate information within the social networkingenvironment may include receiving information provided within the socialnetworking environment, and, upon determining that the receivedinformation is factual, determining whether the received informationmatches analogous information verified as accurate. Determining whetherthe received information matches the analogous information verified asaccurate may include completing a comparison via at least one of naturallanguage processing (NLP), data mining, or natural languageclassification. Furthermore, according to such embodiment, the methodstep of identifying the inaccurate information further may include, upondetermining that the received information does not match the analogousinformation verified as accurate, marking the received information asinaccurate. Additionally, according to such embodiment, the method stepof identifying the inaccurate information within the social networkingenvironment further may include, upon determining that the receivedinformation does not match the analogous information verified asaccurate, recording statistics with respect to the inaccurateinformation.

In a further embodiment, the countering content may include at least oneaspect that resembles at least one corresponding aspect of theinaccurate information. Specifically, the countering content may bedetermined based upon at least one of (i) language patterns associatedwith the inaccurate information, (ii) content or branding within one ormore images associated with the inaccurate information, or (iii)stylistic elements associated with the inaccurate information.

In a further embodiment, the method step of disseminating the counteringcontent may include incorporating the countering content into thirdparty material external to the social networking environment.Additionally or alternatively, the method step of disseminating thecountering content may include incorporating the countering content intoat least one post within the social networking environment presented inresponse to one or more posts including the inaccurate information.Additionally or alternatively, the method step of disseminating thecountering content may include incorporating the countering content intoone or more posts in an activity stream associated with the socialnetworking environment. In such case, the one or more posts in theactivity stream incorporating the countering content may have a higherpriority than any post associated with the inaccurate information.

In a further embodiment, identifying the behavior of one or more usersamong the plurality of users within the social networking environmentmay include establishing a pattern of monitoring respective actions ofone or more users among the plurality of users and further includesdetecting any correlation between the respective actions of the one ormore users and environmental stimuli.

An additional embodiment includes a computer program product including acomputer readable storage medium having program instructions embodiedtherewith, wherein the program instructions may be executable by acomputing device to cause the computing device to perform one or moresteps of above recited method. A further embodiment includes a systemhaving a processor and a memory storing an application program, which,when executed on the processor, performs one or more steps of the aboverecited method.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the above recited aspects are attained andcan be understood in detail, a more particular description ofembodiments, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to theappended drawings.

Note, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typicalembodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be consideredlimiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equallyeffective embodiments.

FIG. 1 illustrates a computing infrastructure, according to anembodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method of addressing propagation of inaccurateinformation in a social networking environment, according to anembodiment.

FIG. 3 illustrates a method of identifying inaccurate information withina social networking environment, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method of identifying behavior of one or more usersamong a plurality of users within a social networking environment,according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The various embodiments described herein are directed to techniques foraddressing propagation of inaccurate information in a social networkingenvironment or other online environment. More specifically, inaccurateinformation of a factual nature may be identified, and counteringcontent may be created and disseminated in order to address thepropagation of such inaccurate information.

The various embodiments described herein may have advantages overconventional techniques of addressing inaccurate information.Specifically, the various embodiments may provide the ability to counterfactually inaccurate information in a social networking environmentwithout attacking or censoring the purveyor of such inaccurateinformation. Thus, the various embodiments may address inaccurateinformation while avoiding the “Streisand effect”. Furthermore, byproviding countering content, the various embodiments may neutralize theimpact of inaccurate information within a social networking environment.Some of the various embodiments may not include all such advantages, andsuch advantages are not necessarily required of all embodiments.

In the following, reference is made to various embodiments of theinvention. However, it should be understood that the invention is notlimited to specific described embodiments. Instead, any combination ofthe following features and elements, whether related to differentembodiments or not, is contemplated to implement and practice theinvention. Furthermore, although embodiments may achieve advantages overother possible solutions and/or over the prior art, whether or not aparticular advantage is achieved by a given embodiment is not limiting.Thus, the following aspects, features, embodiments and advantages aremerely illustrative and are not considered elements or limitations ofthe appended claims except where explicitly recited in a claim(s).Likewise, reference to “the invention” shall not be construed as ageneralization of any inventive subject matter disclosed herein andshall not be considered to be an element or limitation of the appendedclaims except where explicitly recited in a claim(s).

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product at any possible technical detail level of integration.The computer program product may include a computer readable storagemedium (or media) having computer readable program instructions thereonfor causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network, and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers, and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++, or the like, andconventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer,or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions also may be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

The various embodiments described herein may be provided to end usersthrough a cloud computing infrastructure. Cloud computing generallyrefers to the provision of scalable computing resources as a serviceover a network. More formally, cloud computing may be defined as acomputing capability that provides an abstraction between the computingresource and its underlying technical architecture (e.g., servers,storage, networks), enabling convenient, on-demand network access to ashared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidlyprovisioned and released with minimal management effort or serviceprovider interaction. Thus, cloud computing allows a user to accessvirtual computing resources (e.g., storage, data, applications, and evencomplete virtualized computing systems) in the cloud, without regard forthe underlying physical systems (or locations of those systems) used toprovide the computing resources.

Typically, cloud computing resources are provided to a user on apay-per-use basis, where users are charged only for the computingresources actually used (e.g., an amount of storage space consumed by auser or a number of virtualized systems instantiated by the user). Auser can access any of the resources that reside in the cloud at anytime, and from anywhere across the Internet. In context of thisdisclosure, workloads of a client computing system or server systemrunning an application according to the various embodiments describedherein may be deployed to a computing cloud. Moreover, cloud-baseddatabase systems, virtual machines, and a variety of other serverapplications may be used to manage such workloads.

Further, particular embodiments describe techniques for addressingpropagation of inaccurate information in a social networking environmentor other online environment. However, it should be understood that thetechniques described herein may be adapted to a variety of purposes inaddition to those specifically described herein. Accordingly, referencesto specific embodiments are included to be illustrative and notlimiting.

FIG. 1 illustrates a computing infrastructure 100 according to anembodiment. Computing infrastructure 100 may constitute a portion of asocial networking environment or another online environment involvingperson-to-person communication. As shown, computing infrastructure 100includes a client computing system 105 and a server system 135, each ofwhich may be connected to a communications network 165.

Illustratively, client computing system 105 may include a memory 107,storage 109, input/output (I/O) device interface 111, a centralprocessing unit (CPU) 113, and a client network interface 115, all ofwhich may be interconnected via interconnect 117 (e.g., a bus). Althoughshown as a single computing system, client computing system 105 isincluded to be representative of a single client or multiple clients. Inan embodiment, client computing system 105 may be a thin client. In afurther embodiment, client computing system 105 may be a mobile device(e.g., a cellular telephone or a tablet device). Memory 107 may includea client application 119. Client application 119 may interface withserver system 135 and other computing systems via application interface120. Application interface 120 may be a browser or other onlineinterface. Storage 109 may include client application data 121associated with client application 119. I/O device interface 111 may becommunicatively coupled to one or more client I/O devices 123. CPU 113is included to be representative of a single CPU, multiple CPUs, asingle CPU having multiple processing cores, and the like. Clientnetwork interface 115 may receive data from and transmit data to serversystem 135 or another computing system via network 165.

Server system 135 may include a memory 137, storage 139, I/O deviceinterface 141, a CPU 143, and a server network interface 145, all ofwhich may be interconnected via interconnect 147 (e.g., a bus). Althoughshown as a single computing system, server system 135 is included to berepresentative of a single server system or multiple server systems.Memory 137 may include a server application 149. The server application149 may be a social networking application for processing requests fromusers (e.g., a user of client computing system 105) in a socialnetworking environment. Furthermore, server application 149 may includemonitoring tool 150. Monitoring tool 150 may identify inaccurateinformation and may facilitate creation of content to counter suchinaccurate information according to the various embodiments furtherdescribed herein. As illustrated in FIG. 1, server application 149interfaces with a database management system (DBMS) 151, which also isincluded in memory 137. DBMS 151 is included be representative of asingle database system or multiple database systems. Storage 139 mayinclude server application data 153 and databases 155. Serverapplication 149 may generate and process server application data 153based upon interaction with client computing system 105. Serverapplication 149 may send database requests to DBMS 151, and serverapplication 149 may process results returned by DBMS 151 to generateserver application data 153. DBMS 151 may include a software applicationconfigured to manage databases 155. Databases 155 may include one ormore relational databases. Additionally, databases 155 may include oneor more ontology trees or other ontological structures. In the contextof the various embodiments described herein, server application 149 mayfacilitate identification of inaccurate information by comparing suchinformation with material from databases 155 (and/or from other datasources). While FIG. 1 illustrates three databases 155, computinginfrastructure 100 may include any number of databases. According to anembodiment, DBMS 151 may send requests to remote databases (not shown)via network 165. Furthermore, server application 149 optionally mayinterface with at least one of a discussion forum, a social network, aproduct marketplace, or a weblog.

I/O device interface 141 may be communicatively coupled to one or moreserver I/O devices 157. CPU 143 is included to be representative of asingle CPU, multiple CPUs, a single CPU having multiple processingcores, and the like. Server network interface 145 may receive data fromand transmit data to client computing system 105 via network 165.Specifically, server application 149 may accept requests sent by clientcomputing system 105 to server system 135 and may transmit data toclient computing system 105 or other computing systems via servernetwork interface 145.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method 200 of addressing propagation of inaccurateinformation in a social networking environment (e.g., includingcomputing infrastructure 100), according to an embodiment. According tothe method 200, a monitoring tool associated with an online application(e.g., monitoring tool 150 of server application 149) may identifyinaccurate information and may facilitate creation of content to counterthe identified inaccurate information. The monitoring tool may belocated in a server system in the social networking environment (e.g.,server system 135).

The method 200 may begin at step 205, where the monitoring tool mayidentify inaccurate information within the social networkingenvironment. The monitoring tool may identify inaccurate information viaa communications network (e.g., network 165). In some instances, suchinaccurate information may be propagated by a highly-rated user (ormultiple highly-rated users) among a plurality of users within thesocial networking environment. For instance, such inaccurate informationmay be propagated by one or more celebrities or users who are highlytrusted by their respective peers. In such case, it may be particularlyimportant to identify and address such inaccurate information, since ahighly-rated user may have a relatively high impact on the thoughts andimpressions of other users in the social networking environment. Anembodiment pertaining to identifying inaccurate information according tostep 205 is described further herein in a method 300.

At step 210, the monitoring tool may facilitate creation of counteringcontent to address the inaccurate information. In an embodiment, thecountering content may be determined by identifying behavior of one ormore users among the plurality of users within the social networkingenvironment. An embodiment pertaining to identifying behavior of one ormore users among the plurality of users according to this embodiment ofstep 210 is described further herein in a method 400. Additionally, thecountering content may include at least one aspect that resembles atleast one corresponding aspect of the inaccurate information. In anembodiment, the countering content may be determined based upon at leastone of language patterns associated with the inaccurate information,content or branding within one or more images associated with theinaccurate information, or stylistic elements associated with theinaccurate information. Such aspects associated with the inaccurateinformation may be flagged as key points to be countered, and inresponse the monitoring tool may create countering content that emulatesor is analogous to one or more aspects of the inaccurate informationsuch that the countering content is more likely to be considered alongwith the inaccurate information in the social networking environment.

The monitoring tool may create the countering content directly withinthe server system. Alternatively, the monitoring tool may request thatthe countering content be created externally to the server system, e.g.,within one or more client computing systems or within another serversystem in the social networking environment. In the event that thecountering content is created externally to the server system, themonitoring tool may obtain the countering content via the communicationsnetwork upon its creation.

At step 215, the monitoring tool may disseminate the countering contentcreated according to step 210. The monitoring tool may identify thesource of the inaccurate information in order to determine portion orportions of the network at which to disseminate the countering content.For instance, upon determining that the inaccurate informationoriginated from a client computing system of a particular user in thesocial networking environment, the monitoring tool may arrange thatusers directly or peripherally associated with the particular user(e.g., users having a friendship, group association, or other connectionwith the particular user) receive the countering content. Additionally,the monitoring tool may arrange that users with an interest in theparticular user from whom the inaccurate information originated (e.g.,users who are followers of celebrity or special interest contentassociated with the particular user) receive the countering content.Subsequently, the countering content optionally may be disseminated toadditional users. For instance, the countering content may be furtherdisseminated by the users directly or peripherally associated with theparticular user from whom the inaccurate information originated.

The monitoring tool may disseminate the countering content according tostep 215 via one or more techniques. In an embodiment, the monitoringtool may incorporate the countering content into third party materialexternal to the social networking environment. For instance, if a userin the social networking environment selects a link to a third partywebsite/application, the monitoring tool may facilitate injection ofcountering content into the third party website/application to addressinaccurate information previously presented to such user in the socialnetworking environment and/or presented to such user via the third partywebsite/application.

In a further embodiment, the monitoring tool may disseminate thecountering content by incorporating the countering content into at leastone post in the social networking environment presented in response toone or more posts including the inaccurate information. In such case,the at least one responding post may emulate the one or more postsincluding the inaccurate information. The at least one responding postin such case may be created and disseminated directly by the monitoringtool. Additionally or alternatively, the at least one responding post insuch case may be created and posted by one or more “allied users”collaborating with the monitoring tool to ensure accuracy of factualinformation within the social networking environment. Furthermore, themonitoring tool may disseminate the countering content by incorporatingthe countering content into one or more posts in an activity streamassociated with the social networking environment. In such case, themonitoring tool may allocate the one or more posts in the activitystream including the countering content a higher priority than any postassociated with the inaccurate information. The one or most postsincluding the countering content optionally may be displayed moreprominently in the activity stream (e.g., with bold text or enlargedtext) to reflect higher priority relative to the inaccurate informationand/or relative to other posts.

FIG. 3 illustrates method 300 of identifying inaccurate informationwithin the social networking environment. The method 300 provides anexample embodiment with respect to step 205 of the method 200. Themethod 300 may begin at step 305, where the monitoring tool may receiveinformation provided within the social networking environment. Forinstance, the information may be posted by a user of a client computingsystem (e.g., client computing system 105) via an application interfaceof a client application (e.g., application interface 120 of clientapplication 119). At step 310, the monitoring tool may determine whetherthe information received at step 305 is factual, i.e., objectivelyverifiable as true or false. Upon determining that the information isnot factual (e.g., an opinion or an unverifiable assertion), then themethod 300 may end, since non-factual information cannot be determinedto be accurate or inaccurate.

Upon determining at step 310 that the information is factual, at step315 the monitoring tool may determine whether the received informationmatches analogous information verified as accurate. Specifically, atstep 315 the monitoring tool may compare the received information to theanalogous information verified as accurate. The monitoring tool mayaccess such analogous information from a data store. Such data store mayinclude databases in the server system (e.g., databases 155).Additionally or alternatively, such data store may include databasesexternal to the server system. In an embodiment, the monitoring tool mayintroduce a margin of error in making the match determination, e.g., fora comparison involving quantitative information.

In an embodiment, the monitoring tool may complete the comparison atstep 315 between the received information and the information verifiedas accurate via at least one of natural language processing (NLP), datamining (e.g., text mining), or natural language classification.Additionally or alternatively, the monitoring tool may complete thecomparison via one or more other alphanumeric language processingtechniques. The monitoring tool may directly complete the comparison viasuch techniques or alternatively may obtain results of the comparisonfrom an external source.

Upon determining at step 315 that the received information matches theanalogous information verified as accurate, the method 300 may end. Upondetermining that the received information does not match the analogousinformation verified as accurate, at step 320 the monitoring tool maymark the received information as inaccurate information. Optionally,upon determining that the received information does not match theanalogous information verified as accurate, at step 325 the monitoringtool further may record statistics with respect to the inaccurateinformation. For instance, such statistics may indicate the point intime at which the inaccurate information was made publicly available viathe social networking environment. Moreover, such statistics mayindicate the respective identities of users in the social networkingenvironment who have been exposed to the inaccurate information via apost or some other connection with the source of the inaccurateinformation. Such statistics may provide quantitative information withrespect to the speed at which the inaccurate information has spreadthrough the social networking environment or the extent to which theinaccurate information has spread.

FIG. 4 illustrates method 400 of identifying behavior of one or moreusers among the plurality of users within the social networkingenvironment. The method 400 provides an example embodiment with respectto step 210 of the method 200. The method 400 may begin at step 405,where the monitoring tool may establish a pattern of monitoringrespective actions of one or more users among the plurality of users. Atstep 410, in response to monitoring the respective actions of the one ormore users according to step 405, the monitoring tool may detect anycorrelation between the respective actions of the one or more users andenvironmental stimuli. Step 410 may be repeated to detect multiplecorrelations. For example, it is assumed that User A often re-postscontent posted by a User B within a day of User B posting content in thesocial networking environment. According to the method 400, themonitoring tool may detect that User A has a propensity to re-postcontent posted by User B, which serves as an environmental stimulus. Asa further example, it is assumed that User C routinely logs into thesocial networking environment within a certain time period during eachweekday in order to check for content posted by other users within aparticular online community. According to the method 400, the monitoringtool may detect that User C has a propensity to check for content postedby other users within a certain time period during each weekday, whichserves as an environmental stimulus. In the context of these examples,by identifying behavior of User A and User C within the socialnetworking environment, the monitoring tool may determine how best tofacilitate creation of and disseminate countering content to addressinaccurate information that may reach these users. More specifically,the monitoring tool may ensure that countering content is presented toUser A (e.g., via an activity stream) in order to address any inaccurateinformation posted by User B. Furthermore, the monitoring tool mayensure that countering content is presented to User C within the timeperiod during which User C routinely logs into the social networkingenvironment in order to address any inaccurate information posted byother users. In an embodiment, identification of behavior according tothe method 400 may occur during a predetermined time period. Accordingto such embodiment, detection of any correlation per step 410 maycontinue until the predetermined time period expires.

By disseminating countering content according to the various embodimentsdescribed herein, factually inaccurate information may be identified andaddressed with a reduced risk of offending or otherwise negativelyaffecting users in a social networking environment.

While the foregoing description is directed to various embodiments, suchdescription is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Allkinds of modifications made to the described embodiments and equivalentarrangements should fall within the protected scope of the invention.Hence, the scope of the invention should be explained most widelyaccording to the claims that follow in connection with the detaileddescription, and should cover all the possibly equivalent variations andequivalent arrangements. Accordingly, further embodiments may be devisedwithout departing from the basic scope of the invention.

1. (canceled)
 2. A method of addressing propagation of inaccurateinformation in asocial networking environment, the method comprising:identifying, via a communications network, inaccurate information withinthe social networking environment; facilitating creation of counteringcontent to address propagation of the inaccurate information, thecountering content created based on at least one of language patternsassociated with the inaccurate information, content or brandingassociated with the inaccurate information, stylistic elementsassociated with the inaccurate information, or identifying behavior ofone or more users among a plurality of users within the socialnetworking environment; and disseminating the countering content byincorporating the countering content into at least one post within thesocial networking environment in response to one or more posts includingthe inaccurate information.
 3. The method of claim 2, whereinidentifying the inaccurate information within the social networkingenvironment comprises identifying inaccurate information propagated by ahighly-rated user among the plurality of users in the social networkingenvironment.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: disseminatingthe countering content to users who are followers of the highly-rateduser.
 5. The method of claim 2, wherein identifying the behavior of oneor more users among the plurality of users within the social networkingenvironment comprises: establishing a pattern of monitoring respectiveactions of one or more users among the plurality of users; and detectingany correlation between the respective actions of the one or more usersand environmental stimuli.
 6. The method of claim 2, wherein identifyingthe inaccurate information within the social networking environmentcomprises: receiving information provided within the social networkingenvironment; upon determining that the received information is factual,determining whether the received information matches analogousinformation verified as accurate; and upon determining that the receivedinformation does not match the analogous information verified asaccurate, marking the received information as inaccurate.
 7. The methodof claim 2, wherein the one or more posts are part of an activity streamassociated with the social networking environment, and wherein the atleast one post in the activity stream incorporating the counteringcontent has a higher priority than any post associated with theinaccurate information.
 8. The method of claim 2, wherein disseminatingthe countering content further comprises facilitating injection of thecountering content into a third party website or application.
 9. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the inaccurate information was posted by afirst user of the plurality of users within the social networkingenvironment, and further comprising: identifying behavior of a seconduser that indicates that the second user typically re-posts content fromthe first user within a specified time of the first user posting thecontent; and disseminating the countering content to the second userwith the specified time.
 10. A system comprising: at least oneprocessor; and a memory storing an application program, which, whenexecuted on the at least one processor, preforms operations comprising:identifying, via a communications network, inaccurate information withinthe social networking environment; facilitating creation of counteringcontent to address propagation of the inaccurate information, thecountering content created based on at least one of language patternsassociated with the inaccurate information, content or brandingassociated with the inaccurate information, stylistic elementsassociated with the inaccurate information, or identifying behavior ofone or more users among a plurality of users within the socialnetworking environment; and disseminating the countering content byincorporating the countering content into at least one post within thesocial networking environment in response to one or more posts includingthe inaccurate information.
 11. The system of claim 10, whereinidentifying the inaccurate information within the social networkingenvironment comprises identifying inaccurate information propagated by ahighly-rated user among the plurality of users in the social networkingenvironment.
 12. The system of claim 11, the operations furthercomprising: disseminating the countering content to users who arefollowers of the highly-rated user.
 13. The system of claim 10, whereinidentifying the behavior of one or more users among the plurality ofusers within the social networking environment comprises: establishing apattern of monitoring respective actions of one or more users among theplurality of users; and detecting any correlation between the respectiveactions of the one or more users and environmental stimuli.
 14. Thesystem of claim 10, wherein identifying the inaccurate informationwithin the social networking environment comprises: receivinginformation provided within the social networking environment; upondetermining that the received information is factual, determiningwhether the received information matches analogous information verifiedas accurate; and upon determining that the received information does notmatch the analogous information verified as accurate, marking thereceived information as inaccurate.
 15. The system of claim 10, whereinthe one or more posts are part of an activity stream associated with thesocial networking environment, and wherein the at least one post in theactivity stream incorporating the countering content has a higherpriority than any post associated with the inaccurate information. 16.The system of claim 10, wherein disseminating the countering contentfurther comprises facilitating injection of the countering content intoa third party website or application.
 17. The system of claim 10,wherein the inaccurate information was posted by a first user of theplurality of users within the social networking environment, and theoperations further comprising: identifying behavior of a second userthat indicates that the second user typically re-posts content from thefirst user within a specified time of the first user posting thecontent; and disseminating the countering content to the second userwith the specified time.
 18. A computer program product comprising acomputer readable storage medium having program instructions embodiedtherewith, the program instructions executable by a computing device tocause the computing device to perform operations comprising:identifying, via a communications network, inaccurate information withinthe social networking environment; facilitating creation of counteringcontent to address propagation of the inaccurate information, thecountering content created based on at least one of language patternsassociated with the inaccurate information, content or brandingassociated with the inaccurate information, stylistic elementsassociated with the inaccurate information, or identifying behavior ofone or more users among a plurality of users within the socialnetworking environment; and disseminating the countering content byincorporating the countering content into at least one post within thesocial networking environment in response to one or more posts includingthe inaccurate information.
 19. The computer program product of claim18, wherein identifying the inaccurate information within the socialnetworking environment comprises identifying inaccurate informationpropagated by a highly-rated user among the plurality of users in thesocial networking environment, and the operations further comprising:disseminating the countering content to users who are followers of thehighly-rated user.
 20. The computer program product of claim 18, whereinidentifying the behavior of one or more users among the plurality ofusers within the social networking environment comprises: establishing apattern of monitoring respective actions of one or more users among theplurality of users; and detecting any correlation between the respectiveactions of the one or more users and environmental stimuli.
 21. Thecomputer program product of claim 18, wherein the inaccurate informationwas posted by a first user of the plurality of users within the socialnetworking environment, and the operations further comprising:identifying behavior of a second user that indicates that the seconduser typically re-posts content from the first user within a specifiedtime of the first user posting the content; and disseminating thecountering content to the second user with the specified time.